The Budget has been delivered and all the allegations against this Government of being profligate in its spending have been borne out with borrowing estimated to be £660 billion over the next four years – which is simply ridiculous. This figure is calculated on the basis that growth will be 3.5% in 2011 which at the moment seems wildly optimistic.

Reverting to its natural instincts the Government is proposing to increase the top rate of tax to 50% for those earning over £150 000. This is symbolic more than an attempt to get spending under control and is designed to appease the left wingers in the Labour Party and pressure the Conservatives.

One thing which never changes is the outcome after a sustained period of a Labour Government. All Labour Governments spend as though there is no tomorrow and tax until the pips squeak and leave the country’s economy is an absolute and utter mess. Gordon Brown’s is no different!

Unemployment is up 177,000 to 2.1 million and borrowing in the last financial year has gone up to £90 billion with borrowing this year projected to be a colossal £180 billion. Will the Chancellor introduce measures designed to win next year’s general election or will he do the ‘right’ thing and look to reduce the soaring debt and try and control public expenditure? All should be revealed later today when he delivers his budget.

Damian Green will not be charged over the Home Office leaks because the DPP has rightly albeit belatedly concluded what most people already knew that he was simply doing his job as an opposition politician.

It was obvious to everyone except the Police that Damian Green wasn’t guilty of any crime and by dragging it out for so long, both the Police and CPS have appeared foolish and guilty of wasting taxpayers money.

Damian Green has behaved with dignity throughout this sorry episode and I am extremely pleased that he can now continue to do his work without the threat of being charged for a criminal offence hanging over his head.

Gordon Brown would want us to believe that there has been a cash injection of $1 trillion into the IMF to help the world’s struggling economies. The headlines this morning are full of quotes from the leaders hailing this as a great step forward in the new world economic order. Brown is this morning basking in the glory of putting together a ‘global’ deal and he also has his support from Obama who hailed the outcome as ‘historic.’

But will this ‘deal’ do what it says on the tin and reverse the recession? I doubt it. As I mentioned yesterday, the G20 meeting has come 6 months too late. Most leaders of G20 nations have put measures in place to deal with their economies and will wait to see whether they work before doing anything else regardless of what they have signed up to.

And once the economists and other analysts have had time to look at the astronomical figures talked about at the G20, we will have a presented to us a completely new picture, for example, at least $250bn of the trade finance will come from existing programs of export guarantees in rich countries and isn’t new money. No doubt there’s much of this in this $1 trillion package. Fraser Nelson has written a typically excellent piece over at coffee house which is a must read.

President Obama has strolled into Downing Street and Gordon Brown has been grinning as best he can in the hope that this shot will be splashed all over the papers tomorrow. Gordon Brown is going against all his natural instincts but he’s managed to force the smile out!!

Now that is out of the way, we must hope that an agreement is reached among the G20 that actually leads to affirmative action to deal with the world economy. I am highly sceptical that any deal will be reached that will have a quick and positive impact on the world economy not least for the reason that this meeting has come at least 6 months too late and all the major western nations are gripped by recession. But better late than never and if all the leaders sign up to anti-protectionists measures (such as dismissing British jobs for British workers type nonsense) that will be at least something positive coming out of what appears to be a very expensive international talking shop.